Debt market moderates 3% in 2017: ICRA

KOLKATA: India’s debt capital markets moderated by three per cent in 2017 with a year-on-year growth of 16 per cent in the value of corporate bonds outstanding as on December, 2017, compared to 19 per cent growth in 2016, rating agency ICRA said today.

The rating agency said, the moderation has been driven by a slowdown in bond issuances during FY18 (YTD), with two per cent YoY de-growth in issuance volume during the first nine months of the current fiscal.

During April-December’17 of FY18, the bond issuance volumes stood at Rs 4.83 lakh crore as compared to Rs 4.93 lakh crore during the same period last year.

However, despite such volatility, medium to long-term prospects for growth of India’s debt capital market remains intact, it said.

“The recent volatility as well as surge in long-term bond yields has impacted the growth in corporate bond issuances, however, India’s corporate debt/GDP penetration remains low in relation to many other countries. Thus, the medium to long-term prospects for growth of India’s debt capital market remains intact,” ICRA group head (financial sector) Karthik Srinivasan said.

The volume of corporate bonds outstanding increased significantly to Rs 26.47 lakh crore as on December 2017 from Rs 22.76 lakh crore as on December 2016.